"If you heard a recording of Beilein and his coaches, you might think you were hearing a group version of Mad Libs," Tim Keown writes of coach John Beilein. "Over the years, he has concocted his own basketball dialect.

" 'You like a Potato here better than a Mickey. Go from a UMass screen to a Bullet, then you can Chris Paul. Any time in this game you have a Shoelace, turn it into a Handback ...' "

Huh?

"It's like, I don't know what the hell he's talking about, but I like the way it sounds," editor-in-chief Chad Millman said. "I feel like I didn't know that about this guy having a very specific language, and it makes me like him more.

"And it makes me think about what he's saying during a game, and I think that's what you're trying to get at with any of these stories. You want to be able to give someone something to think about when they are watching a team, both Michigan and Ohio State, conceivably for the next three to four weeks."

That's one reason the game was chosen, Millman said, along with having an established rivalry "in another sport."